A federal judge in Florida has approved the Justice Department’s petition to disclose grand jury transcripts involving Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, invoking a recent federal transparency statute.

Judge Rodney Smith ruled that the Epstein Files Transparency Act of 2025 takes precedence over the existing federal grand jury confidentiality rules. This legislation, which President Donald Trump signed into law on November 19, mandates that the Attorney General must release all unclassified Department of Justice records linked to Epstein and Maxwell.

Although the decision on the timing and method of release rests with the DOJ, the law obligates the department to make these records public within a 30-day timeframe.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were charged with federal sex trafficking offenses due to Epstein’s long-standing exploitation of underage girls.

Judge Smith’s decision does not immediately make the documents available but represents significant progress. Meanwhile, requests to unseal records in the sex trafficking cases against Epstein and Maxwell in New York are still under consideration.

The transcripts and other grand jury material in Florida and New York were used by prosecutors to bring initial charges against Epstein and Maxwell and represent a small fraction of the tranche of files related to the cases. The material is also one-sided by nature and could lack context or accuracy.

A view of the compound on Epstein’s island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. (House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform)

Federal judges in Florida and New York previously refused to release the material, saying it would violate grand jury rules, but passage of the transparency law has now changed that calculus in Florida.

As part of the earlier requests, judges said the contents that would be unsealed likely contained no new evidence.